The Magic of Flowers: A Guide to Their Metaphysical Uses & Properties - Tess Whitehurst 2013

Hydrangea
The Flowers

While hydrangeas appear in a number of colors, the garden varieties often range from pink to violet to blue, and the acid content of the soil can cause them to change from one color to another. But no matter what color she is, hydrangea’s sensitivity to slight changes and shifts, along with her very deep alignment with water and the watery realm of psychic awareness, combine to make her a special ally to those of us who might be called psychic, intuitive, or spiritually sensitive. This is especially true because, while it might seem contradictory, her sensitivity is coupled with a fierce energetic dynamic related to shielding and protection. Consequently, she can help us experience our psychic gifts while also honoring our boundaries and staying spiritually safe and sound.

Magical Uses

Boundaries

Those of us who are magically inclined can often have a particular challenge when it comes to maintaining healthy boundaries in relationships and in the invisible realm. This is because we can pick up on other people’s emotions and on slight changes in the energetic environment, and the lines between us, others, and our environment can sometimes get blurred. What’s more, our very bright light and potent power can cause others to—sometimes consciously but usually subconsciously—latch onto us and siphon off some of our personal energy.

Hydrangea’s wisdom is about experiencing the fullness of your magical power while still standing in your strength and maintaining healthy emotional, spiritual, and physical boundaries.

For this purpose, I suggest any of the following:

✵ Plant hydrangeas around the perimeter of your yard or on either side of the front door or front gate, and ask them to help you maintain positive boundaries in your home and life.

✵ Take two to three drops hydrangea essence under the tongue or in water two to three times per day.

✵ Place a bouquet of hydrangeas on your altar and petition a god/dess of your choice to help you establish and maintain good boundaries.

✵ Incorporate hydrangeas into spells, charms, or rituals designed for the purpose.

Deconstructing Challenging Karmic Patterns

When you notice an ongoing or recurring unpleasant condition in your life, and you get the sense that you have it in common with older relatives and even ancestors (such as a specific kind of money or relationship issue), it’s most likely a challenging karmic pattern that is interwoven into your family tree. Challenging karmic patterns can also be interwoven throughout your own past lifetimes and carry over into the present one.

When consciously charged with intention, hydrangea can help penetrate these types of patterns and work with us to deconstruct them so that they stop wreaking havoc in our lives and so that we don’t have to continue to pass them down to wreak havoc in future generations or lifetimes either.

For this purpose, you might try sitting in quiet contemplation with a hydrangea, requesting help with your karmic challenge, and then relaxing your mind and allowing hydrangea to work her magic. Additionally (or instead if you don’t have access to a flowering plant), at the full moon, you might take three drops hydrangea essence under the tongue first thing in the morning or last thing at night (whichever feels right). After you take it, place both hands on your heart and say:

With hydrangea’s help, this old pattern now unravels, dissolves, and completely disappears. It is gone, gone, gone, never to return. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and so mote it be.

Repeat each night of the waning moon.

Hex Breaking

According to author Judika Illes in The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, “To be hexed is to be spellbound, cursed, or bewitched.” From a certain perspective, the hex might be caused by an actual spell, curse, or bewitchment (i.e., a magical attack of some sort), or it might also be caused by something like a psychic attack (see page 191), a challenging karmic pattern (see above), or even a limiting belief or thought pattern that holds us under its insidious sway.

Whatever the source of the hex, hydrangea can help break it. Here are a few ideas for how to employ her for this purpose.

CLEANSING FIRE

Consciously tune in to a blossoming hydrangea plant or plants and respectfully request their help with the situation. If they give you the okay, gently and lovingly gather a bouquet. Leave a silver dollar and ten pennies as payment. Then dry the bouquet completely, perhaps by hanging it upside down from the ceiling. The first day after a full moon, build a fire in a fireplace or fire pit. Relax and take some deep breaths. Whether you know its source or not, intuitively get in touch with the energy of the hex, then hold the dried bouquet in your hands. Whisper to the bouquet:

Thank you for helping me cleanse and dissolve this hex!

Now is the time! Find it, break it, and snuff it out forever!

(Safely) throw the bouquet in the fire and watch it burn.

PURIFYING MIST

Place nine drops hydrangea flower essence and twenty drops sage essential oil in a mister of rose water. Shake to blend. The night after a full moon, mist each room and area of your home while walking in a counterclockwise direction and chanting:

Wash it out, clear it out, blessed be.

The hex is broken; I am free.

Finish by misting yourself. Repeat each night of the waning moon, making an extra batch of the potion when necessary.

UNCROSSING SACHETS

Sew or obtain one small red flannel bag for:

✵ your front door

✵ your back door and any other doors to the outside

✵ every inside door

✵ yourself

✵ any loved ones whom the hex may also involve (except animals—they don’t need one to receive the benefits of the ritual)

For each sachet, also obtain:

✵ one garlic clove

✵ nine individual hydrangea blossoms (the small blossoms within the blossoms—not the entire flower head), gathered with intention and gentleness

✵ nine white sage leaves

✵ a small length of hemp twine

The day after a full moon, empower all ingredients by saying a simple blessing prayer over them and envisioning white light around them. Then take one clove of garlic and gently hit it with a hammer to release its essence as you say:

The hex is broken;

I (we) am (are) free.

Place the clove in the first bag, along with the nine blossoms and nine leaves. Tie closed with a length of twine. Repeat with each sachet. Attach one sachet to each door, keep one on your person, and distribute one to each additional person as necessary; you can also do this later if they are not currently in the vicinity. Then stand in a central location and say:

Broken, banished, and unwound, the hex is nowhere to be found.

Happy, healthy, glowing bright; our way is clear, and all’s set right.

At the new moon, bury the blossoms near the base of a tree, then wash your hands.

Protection

Planting hydrangeas around your home can be an excellent magical protection measure, especially when you enlist hydrangea’s help to keep all negativity out and only allow those with the truest and most positive intentions to pass. You can also dry and powder hydrangea, empower it in sunlight and with a simple blessing prayer or visualization, and sprinkle it around the perimeter of your lot.

Redirecting Curses and Psychic Attacks

You might think of a psychic attack as another’s ill will sent in your direction that you have somehow—usually unconsciously—invited or allowed into your energetic field. As an alternative to simply breaking a hex, curse, or psychic attack, you can employ hydrangea to redirect it to its source, sort of like holding up a mirror to someone giving you a dirty look, shielding yourself from it, and forcing the looker to give the look right back to herself. If you choose to go this route, though, be aware that there may be a bit more karmic repercussions than if you were to simply break the hex and leave it at that. It’s up to you!

One way to do this would be to perform the previous “cleansing fire” ritual, only replacing the magic words with:

Thank you for helping me reflect this hex (curse, attack) right back

to its source! Now is the time! Find it, redirect it, and send it home!

As the dried bouquet burns, hold up a small mirror (that has been empowered in sunlight) so that it is facing away from you as you make a complete 360-degree turn slowly, in a counterclockwise direction. Then, to keep the curse from coming back, affix the mirror to the outside of your front door. For extra strength, reinforce it by also performing one or two of the other hex-breaking rituals.

Restructuring Energy Field

One reason hydrangea is such an excellent magical ally when it comes to releasing negative energetic patterns is that she doesn’t just get rid of the old, she also helps us restructure our energy fields and reconfigure our energetic dynamics in healthier, more positive ways. For example, if you’re working on releasing old habits, such as an addiction or an unhealthy relationship pattern, taking the essence regularly would help with this. Or if you’ve recently moved or your living situation has recently changed and you’re interested in establishing a happier home and more ideal residential dynamic, you might plant hydrangeas in the yard and respectfully ask for their help in that area.

Magical Correspondences

Element: Water

Gender: Female

Planets: Moon, Neptune